A New Sound System for the National Marine Museum

High Performance Stereo is pleased to announce that the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in partnership with the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, VA, located near the Marine Corps Base Quantico, has selected the HPS-4000® sound system for the new large screen theatre currently under construction. The theatre will boast an 80 foot wide screen that is also 60 feet tall and will be the home of a special new large format film now in production.

Building a sound image big enough for a screen of this size has always presented a challenge for sound systems. In the past most systems have attempted to create tall sound images with a single center speaker high above the main center speaker. While this approach does help, it still fails fill the screen with a wall of sound that stereo is supposed to be.

HPS founder and president John Allen has given this unique problem a fresh look. Maintaining the desired maximum distance between the speakers behind the screen of 15 feet dictates that there be five main speaker systems. This part is not new. It is the same successful approach pioneered in the 1950s with 70 MM film presentations and now sadly all but abandoned. To add this wide sound image a tall vertical dimension, this new sound system will feature five more additional speakers placed 40 feet high.

All the main full range speakers employed behind the screen will be High Performance Stereo's flagship 545-4 fully horn loaded four-way loudspeakers, each with a continuous acoustic output capability equal to a symphony orchestra. Full horn loading also produces the lowest possible distortion. All the speakers in this system including the surrounds will be built with HPS's new “Stradivarius” midrange compression drivers. A full ten years in development, these critical sound reproducers are the finest HPS has ever employed.

The subwoofer channel will outfitted with eight 545-W fully horn loaded low frequency systems. This is also the same woofer system used in the 545-4 full rage four-way screen speakers. HPS-4000 sound systems are unique in this way. Using the same woofer cabinet in both the main speaker systems as well as the subwoofers means that the bass will sound the same from every speaker behind the screen. This eliminates the unpleasant “boom box” subwoofer sound so common in today's cinemas. Each 545-W woofer system is by itself about 12 times more efficient than the typical “boom box” systems. This also translates into about 12 times less distortion.

Adding all this up results in some pretty impressive numbers. The sound systems found in the majority of movie theatres today have a total low frequency radiating area of around 7 1/2 square feet. This is the total area that all the bass speakers combined can have acting on the air in the room. A few theatres may have twice that much. The smallest HPS-4000 systems have a low frequency radiating area of 30 square feet. The larger HPS-4000 systems start at 50 square feet and have been as much as 130 square feet. The total low frequency radiating area of the HPS-4000 sound system at the National Museum of the Marine Corps will be an unprecedented 185 square feet, delivering an acoustic power of 2,576 acoustic watts. To put it another way, this is the equivalent of 36.8 symphony orchestras all playing at once. This system will be by far the most powerful HPS system in the world. Of course no film will ever play so loud. The power of this system simply means that the speakers and amplifiers will just loaf along and never be even slightly strained. The sound will simply be as beautiful and clear as sound can be without a hint of distortion.

Behind this power will be the new balanced-differential amplifiers by BGW Systems of Montebello, California, a division of Amplifier Technologies. The introduction of these amplifiers marks the very first time in the history of audio that this superior type of amplifier has been made for professional installations. Balanced-differential amplifiers are known not only for their incredible speed (transient response) but exceptional clarity due to their low distortion. Amplifier Technologies is the world's leader in this type of amplifier technology.

High Performance Stereo couldn't be more proud to be chosen for this special theatre. Opening is expected in 2017.

About High Performance Stereo:High Performance Stereo is the developer and exclusive distributor of the computer-designed, digital-ready HPS-4000 sound system.High Performance Stereo Directory page